1306: WICKET England 336-7 (Jones 0)
Surely we've just witnessed the end of Geraint Jones' England career. He misses a sweep shot to Warne and as Rudi Koertzen turns the appeals down, Ricky Ponting throws the ball at the stumps. Foolishly, ludicrously, embarrassingly, Jones holds his stance with his back foot on the line and the TV umpire has no option but to give him out. Unlucky? No chance. Basics, absolute basics. Enjoy the Ashes, Aussies.

This has been a bit of a disaster, but, I'm not too crushed by it. Missing Vaughan and S.Jones showed, but there's been some pluses and positives for the future.

Good for Monty, Cook and Collers to get some Ashes experience udner their belts. The aussies will not have a hope back in England where the crowd is on our side and the pitches have any amount of interest in them.

...Warne's been THAT pivotal to this series win for the Aussies, its pretty much been annoyingly solid/awesome batting coupled with England being crap. In one innings I think Monty showed himself the best spinner in the series.

we'll win them back next time. Cook, Pietersen and Bell will all be better players by then and hopefully Simon Jones will be fit and Stuart Broad will have progressed as everyone is hoping he will. Once the Australian team lose McGrath and Warne, they won't be half as good.

...but Strauss is the obvious captain if Vaughan isn't fit. Freddie's a leader but not a captain, the Vaughan/Strauss team would probably eventually become Strauss/Flintoff, and that would be ace but would need time obviously.

to address here. I actually think we have the bulk of an immensely promising and talented team. The consistency has been extremely disappointing in Australia, because there have been flashes (from practically everyone) of brilliance.

Strauss should have captained the side and I said so in August. He has had quite a poor series with the bat. Especially that padding up to a straight one the other day.

With a focused Trecothick partnering him, and then an embarrassment of riches - Cook, Vaughan, Pietersen, Collingwood, Bell, etc - this side could be great.

Flintoff has been disappointing.

The less said about Jones the better. It is mind-bogglingly daft that we are still persisting with him, and I was one of his more vocal supporters in the past.

The bowling has been pretty ordinary, but with Jones back, and Panesar in, I think we're pretty near unbeatable in England and would be quite difficult to beat away from home.

Australia are generally on the wane, and I think that England will be one of the stronger teams in the next few years alongside India and Pakistan.

The really sad thing about this series is that it hasn't felt like a 3-0. Without the batting calapses at Adelaide and Perth then it could easily still be 1-0 with two games to play.

As many have said, the preperation of the tour was awful. Allowing the players to go home after the ICC trophy was a huge mistake. Harmison is only just coming into a bit of form, so what would he be like if England had played a couple of extra 4 day games before the first test? Flintoff could of done with the batting practice too.

...are phenomenal, its just going to be a big case of astute selection, contracting the right players and building up that team spirit that won the ashes without causing some player to become undroppable. Very akin to the England football team really. Although at least Duncan Fletcher won the main prize before royally fucking up.

Plus Harmison is ring rusty, Flintoff isn't fit and Anderson is both. Our bowling has been pretty poor apart from the first innings in Perth.

I really don't think the Jones/Read thing is that important. Read did ok in the Pakistan series, poorly in the ICC and well in that second class match last weekend. In my mind, thats not enough to suggest that he could of made a big impact in the Ashes.